Few hours after Trump’s elections the global “clean energy” business community started debating about potential debacle coming from a step back in green policies, some how announced by new US Government.

Automakers industry made the first step writing an official letter (see letter from AutomotiveNews ) to the “Transition team” asking to review and weak requirements for fuel consumption that is set to a fleet average of more than 50 MPG by 2025, declaring that “The combination of low gas prices and the existing fuel efficiency gains from the early years of the program is undercutting consumer willingness to buy the vehicles with more expensive alternative powertrains that are necessary for the sector to comply with the more stringent standards in out-years”, also arguing about single state regulations unbalancing consumers acceptance about alternative fuel specially considering California is at the forefront of this approach and other States are following. It’s good to remember that EV industry in California (and many more States) has 7.500$ purchase Tax credit (for the first 200.000 vehicles sold from each car manufacturer) and companies like Tesla still has a big revenue stream from selling EV tax credits certificates to other automakers.

More in general green policies seems to be in danger if we consider that President Trump denies global warming and seems positive towards oil and coal industries and believes that strict ecological regulations can slow economic growth… even if it’s not true according to recent statements.

It’s not clear whether the US government will erase Paris Cop21 agreement but there are few considerations about EV industry (and new mobility) to outline:

Electric vehicles and fuel economy regulations are necessary not only for environmental reasons: they are crucial to hold oil demand (and foreign oil import expenses). We can expect new administrations to keep these measures as today because they prove to reduce oil consumption.

New Government seems more interested in financing big infrastructures (roads, bridges, hopefully some public transport network too..) furthermore engaging car manufactures in creating new jobs and keep productions in US instead of foreign factories.. (Doesn’t matter if cars are internal combustion, electric or autonomous..). I guess State Governors will still deal and support new EV brands like FaradayFuture, NextEv, LEECO, creating thousands of new jobs in Nevada, California and more.

Most of all it is well known that Customers have the real power and even Trumps election confirms these statements if we bring this statement to politics. Well, consumers today more than in the past like the coming to market innovation in EV industry. After Tesla, all big automakers have highly committed plans to introduce new products and even new brands. This trend can’t be stopped by a public administration.. Maybe the Government can slow it down instead of accelerating but at the end the market goes there.

Considering that China and Europe will keep going in this directions US could be in disadvantage situation in the next decade if keep away from this trend.

A final political consideration comes from demographics distributions votes: Young people voted mainly for Hillary, following the most disruptive trends in EV, new mobility and innovation. Mr. Trump declares himself to be President of all Americans and those votes could be very helpful in the midterm election in 4 years time.. so it wouldn’t be so difficult to approach this electorate keeping the growing new and sharing mobility industry alive.

We’ll see in coming months real strategies and first nominations in crucial roles to learn more about what to expect on EV market. Stay tunes.

Master Plan 2 description brings Tesla(Motors) in the next decade of investments and business models. It is interesting to look at what’s behind this announcement (…maybe)

Few months ago the Model 3 presentation astonished the world of passionates and customers with more than 400.000 reservations in few weeks. The presentation came after weeks of rumors about the suspected Model 3 delay… even if clients will get their cars not earlier than late 2017. I was wondering on how Tesla would have kept the attention to their business (and the stock price) for such a long time.

The masterplan 2 is the next step, only few days before the opening of the Gigafactory in Nevada, pushing the boarder much further than followers would expected. The plan covers new vehicles (Semitruck, transit, pickup) Solarcity (Tesla is buying the “sister” company) Sharing mobility, autonomous vehicle, and new manufacturing technology.. basically there is everything on the news in the energy, mobility&automotive industry in the world so far.

It is difficult not appreciating the plan because you can’t miss any innovation you are interested in. I am among the Tesla followers and I see the strategy behind as as a clever lesson. The masterplan is presented through a simple post (I guess there will be some Investor relations executives working on numbers too), anticipated by a series of signals (website domain change in tesla.com, mission moved from “transportation” to “energy”) and come after the fatality of the Autopilot that might have been accelerating the schedule of this presentation, linking the whole to a relevant financial decision (Solarcity investment to be approved by assembly).

@Elonmusk made us used to fast communications keeping expectations increasing. But this time the boarders are much higher than before and we are not talking on building cars only… (even that would be enough to have some concerns about the plan) but creating a global company dealing with different industries connected by the great vision of its founder.

I am willing to see how numbers, investments, business cases will be put together. Surely there’s material for many future presentations.

A Brand Storytelling to launch the new Electric Sport Motorcycle made in Modena

Energica #cal1tour proved long trips are possible with EV motorcycle based on DC fast charge technology.

Galleria Energica opens this week in San Francisco. Meet in 53 Page street from July 7th.

Electric vehicles technology and sharing connected mobility will shape the future of automobile industry. I wrote about recent industry changes in few recent posts, but when it comes to real projects things are quite different.

I recently had the chance to set launching plan for the superior Energica Motor Company second model EVA in USA. Products are well recognized and named by media as the “Tesla of 2 wheels” because bring similar value proposition to customers: performance, exclusivity, luxury, technology and more.

But experts know that Motorcycle industry is usually roughly 8/10 years later than automotive.. so you can figure out the level of concerns about sport 2wheels EV so far. On the other hand the automotive industry success in electric vehicle is a great result to leverage and speed up the introduction to market.

EVA&EGO have many special features but charging time remains the biggest problem consumers face when they consider an EV, especially if it has 2 wheels passion based.

Best way to make consumers aware about riding experience with new technology products is to prove it. Energica is the only bike with DC 20kw fast charge technology installed, the same of automotive industry. California is the crave of EV and has some of the stunning landscapes for riding motorcycle. So the #Cal1tour went live: from Los Angeles to San Francisco, 350 miles riding in one day at 60mph average, 9 fast charging stops of 23 minutes average to charge up to 95% of the battery. A long trip quite common if you have a Tesla or a Leaf… but not usual with an Electric motorcycle.

A crew followed the trip and brand ambassador told his trip in few videos. Enjoy the view, a branding&marketing story split in 3 parts:

To speed up sales strategy Energica opens its first Galleria in San Francisco where customers have the chance to feel the brand experience and see the products.

#CES2016 proved (again) how autonomous cars can be ready to market much earlier than Governments and consumers are. Technology seems not to be a big issue (autonomous engineers might disagree about it), specially if we see how big car automakers are confident in showing their new products.

We all know about Tesla autopilot-mode, Volkswagen had a keynote speech about how the management is shaping a new company for electric, connected, smart and autonomous driving range of products. Mercedes just been licensed to drive autonomous E-Class in Nevada roads, FaradayFuture showed a great concept car, not a production one and not even really close to their real plan, which aims to deliver new models since 2017, with autonomous driving in their path.

Toyota showed long term concepts cars and Ford CEO talked much about new regulations required as the industry is ready. General Motors after investing $500mln in ridesharing company Lyft, just unveiled the new Bolt. Even those companies not exhibiting at the CES made rumors about this coming future technology. Next-EV grows in San Josè R&D facility. The company team won the first ever world Formula-E championship last year and they think global with facilities in US, Europe, China. I can’t miss to mention Alphabet new tailored company Google Self Driving car further than Apple Car project that everyone knows about (.. but please don’t talk much as it’s a secret). I apologize if I don’t dive in describing Nissan pilot projects and Volvo existing self driving cars in Goteborg, but I only remind that the first ever self driving car fleet comes from Italian Parma University R&D company Vislab that drove (actually they didn’t) more than 13.000km from Milan to Shanghai in autonomous driving back in 2010.

Too many news… confirm that industry is almost ready, so what’s next? If we all believe that products will be enough to make the market, we’ll be terribly wrong. Further than that the overall car industry needs to point few more milestones to shape a new mobility business case:

Regulations. Detroit announce by US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx about the 4B plan to set standard rules and promote self driving technology was the right think in the right moment (and at the right place, being at NAIAS show).

Market(ing). Are we really sure people will accept so easily such a disruptive new technology? Probably new generation does, Millennians already prefer sharing mobility more than ownership, but there are more adults on the streets than young ones driving around. It took years to make people familiar in using an electric car.. and you are still driving them. I am highly passionate about new technology so I know industry has to be forward thinking through a new smart approach to self driving cars. Marketing strategies will soon become a key issue to success into this new business industry and certainly it’s a different game compared to sell cars.